Monitoring the levels of various chemical agents is important in variety of applications. Diabetes mellitus is a chronic disease which requires monitoring of blood glucose for proper control. Repetitive determination monitoring of blood glucose is necessary to adequately provide controlled insulin dosing. Currently accurate monitoring is available only by taking and analyzing a blood sample. This invasive procedure is time consuming and not practical for continuous monitoring.
Measurement procedures in law enforcement, including those for intoxication with alcohol, currently utilize indirect tests such as a breath analyzer, motor coordination tests, or require a blood sample. The drawing of a blood sample is an invasive technique which generally necessitates that the blood sample be sent to a laboratory for analysis. Delays in drawing the sample reduce the utility of the test results.
Emergency medical personnel need to be able to immediately, accurately and reliably assess patients"" blood levels of both illicit and licit drugs and make confident, correct clinical treatment decisions.
Safe and accurate detection of toxic chemicals in the environment and explosive compounds presents significant problems.
Therefore, there is a need for a non-invasive quantitative determination of target substances contained within a specimen.
In accordance with the present invention, there is provided an opto-electronic device utilizes a band of partially polarized polychromatic light for quantitative analysis of a specimen containing a target molecule. The device comprises: a polarizer for producing a segmented band of partially polarized polychromatic light from the band of partially polarized polychromatic light; a specimen cell adapted for receiving the specimen and for transporting said segmented band of partially polarized polychromatic light to the specimen; a polarizing analyzer optically coupled to said segmented band of partially polarized polychromatic light exiting the specimen; and comparison means for comparing said segmented band of partially polarized polychromatic light before entering the specimen with said segmented band of partially polarized polychromatic light after exiting the specimen. The target molecule changes ellipticity of said segmented band of partially polarized polychromatic light and said polarizer is synchronized with said polarizing analyzer.